


Night Flight

by Broken_Clover



Category: Guilty Gear
Genre: +anima au, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:20:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23059141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Clover/pseuds/Broken_Clover
Summary: In an alternate universe, Venom escapes his childhood execution by other means
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	Night Flight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MamaNana](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MamaNana/gifts).



> For Nana
> 
> Sorry I keep being mean to your boy
> 
> But on the plus side, more bird Venoms!

The assassin’s camp was like a sleeping giant, hidden away deep within the woods. It played the role well, being near-silent and almost pitch-black aside from the moonlight and a few torches. The latter glided and bobbed down the main path of the camp, illuminating a dozen emotionless faces and one small, teary expression in the center.

“N-no, please, I’m s-sorry- !”

None of them regarded his pleas with so much as a glance. They dragged the boy along by a chain around his wrists, and despite his squirming and the way he dragged his feet, they had little trouble pulling him towards the edge of the encampment. He was far smaller than they were, far weaker, and it was easy to tell that he had little hope in fighting them off.

He didn’t know where they were trying to take him. There were only rumors whispered in between the children, pulled from the brief glimpses they could make out from the sidelines. Anybody who led the groups remained firmly tight-lipped about it, and anyone who had been dragged out in such a manner never returned.

His little mind was alive with whatever nightmares it could conjure up. There was only so much he knew. The overseers said that life outside the camps was torturous and miserable. Life within them seemed torturous and miserable enough, he could hardly imagine how it could be worse.

The last bits of resistance were slowly being whittled down. Fighting was useless. It had just wasted all the energy he had. The procession continued to drag him along even as he couldn’t keep up, little legs scraping uselessly against the ground.

“Stop it!” He cried. “Where am I going?! What did I do?!”

Expecting a response out of them had been a futile hope from the start. But his voice was the only weapon he had, the only thing that could possibly help him escape whatever laid outside.

The forest was thick with trees and shrubs, yet the procession seemed to know exactly where they were heading to. Venom wished he knew. Or maybe he didn’t. He didn’t want to be there, dragged along into an unknown place with an unknown fate awaiting him. He just wanted to be inside, in the long tents with his worn old blanket and the sounds of the other kids asleep and snoring in the way that made him feel almost safe.

Caught up in his fantasies, he hardly realized that the forest had opened up into a clearing. There wasn’t much interesting about it, aside from a thick tree stump stained dark by…

Venom wanted to vomit right then and there. Blood? Why was it surrounded by dark puddles? Was this some sort of strange ritual? Was he going to be sacrificed?! 

He kicked his feet out futilely as they began dragging him towards it. In the crowd surrounding him, a hooded figure emerged, carrying something long and strange in their hands. He didn’t recognize it. All the weapons that the guild used were effective but simple- knives, staves, bows. Nothing like this. This weapon was dull, blood-stained, and heavy-looking. 

Venom realized its purpose, and a sinking feeling dragged his heart down into his stomach. It wasn’t meant to do the job cleanly and quickly- it was meant to make a statement.

Someone pushed him down. His head collided with the flat top of the tree trunk. For a moment, everything flashed white, and he smelled blood, but he knew that wasn’t his own.

“Venom.” A deep, booming voice put a chill in his bones. “You have consistently proven yourself a failure in every aspect of assassin training. The leaders of the Guild have designated you as irredeemable and worthless to our establishment. As Guild law dictates, you have been sentenced to death by beheading.”

He hardly understood what they were trying to say, but he was terrified nonetheless. He didn’t want to die. He didn’t understand what he had done wrong in the first place. 

The dull blade came to rest on the back of his neck. That much, Venom could understand. So that was why they people dragged out of the camps never returned.

“Do you have any final statements?”

Frightened eyes zipped back and forth across rows and rows of impassive faces, blurred by the tears in his eyes. Did nobody care? Did nobody object? What sort of crime must he have done for everyone to agree to do this to him? He hadn’t done anything wrong! It wasn’t fair!

There were a million things that could have said- a final plead for mercy, to curse the Guild and everyone he’d ever met.

But instead, he screamed.

It seemed that they hadn’t been expecting that. The noise caused the trees to shake. He wondered if his voice could possibly be that loud, but he noticed an array of animals fleeing from them in response to the sound. A squirrel darted down the trunk and ran towards a hole in the ground. Bats fluttered away in a swarm. A fox skittered away into the underbrush.

He looked up above the treeline. Silhouetted against the night sky was an owl, feathers spread wide in mid-flight. Venom watched it move, with powerful, graceful wings. 

“I see.” The man in front said, trying to regain his composure. “If that is all you have to say, then-”

Something didn’t feel right. It was hard to focus on what the man was saying to him. Where had the all-encompassing terror gone? He looked back up at the sky for answers, but found none. There was nothing there aside from the moon. Even the owl had vanished, even faster and more abruptly than it had appeared.

The axe moved away from his body to lift up over him. The crowd watched with reverent silence, perhaps even a bit of glee, at the sight of a weak link being culled from their organization.

The world seemed to crawl to a halt. A strange sensation pooled down his shoulders. Something tickled his back, warm and soft in contrast with the cold metal that had been pressed against him. Warmth enveloped his thoughts, gentle and assuring and indescribable but still so relaxing. Was something going on around him? Why were there so many people?

His mind told him that it didn’t matter. Venom unfurled his wings- wings? Since when did he have those?- and with one powerful flap, he was off the ground and soaring into the moonlit darkness.

“W-what on earth…” He could hear the confused voices now below him, trying to process that their victim was now ten feet off the ground and only going higher. “GET BACK HERE!”

It was a meaningless sentiment. By the time the words left their mouths, he was already off, flying into the night.

_“I’m free.”_


End file.
